M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan

The office of John the Baptist. The baptism of Christ, his fasting, his preaching, and the calling of Peter, Andrew, James, and John. Christ heals the man with the unclean spirit, helps Peter’s mother-in-law, and cleanses the leper.

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, ² as it is written in the prophets: Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who shall prepare your way before you. ³ The voice of a crier in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make his paths straight!

⁴ John baptized in the wilderness, and preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. ⁵ And all the countryside of Judea and the people of Jerusalem went out to him, and were all baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

⁶ John was clothed with camel’s hair, and with a girdle of skin about his loins. And he ate locusts and wild honey, ⁷ and preached, saying, One mightier than I comes after me, whose shoe latchet I am not worthy to stoop down and loose. ⁸ I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

⁹ And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth, a town of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan River. ¹⁰ And as soon as Jesus came out of the water, John saw heaven open, and the Holy Spirit descending upon him like a dove. ¹¹ And there came a voice from heaven: You are my dear Son, in whom I delight.

¹² And immediately the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. ¹³ And he was there in the wilderness forty days, and was tried by Satan, and was with wild creatures. And the angels ministered to him.

¹⁴ After John was taken, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God ¹⁵ and saying, The time has come, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe the gospel!

¹⁶ As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting nets into the sea, for they were fishermen. ¹⁷ And Jesus said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. ¹⁸ And straightaway they left their nets and followed him. ¹⁹ And when he had gone a little further, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother as they were in the boat mending their nets. ²⁰ And right away he called them. And they left their father Zebedee in the boat with his hired servants, and went their way after him.

²¹ And they entered into Capernaum. And straightaway on the Sabbath days he entered into the synagogue and taught. ²² And the people marvelled at his teaching. For he taught them as one who had power with him, and not as the scribes.

²³ And there was in their synagogue a man vexed with an unclean spirit, who cried out, ²⁴ saying, Let us be! What have we to do with you, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know you, who you are: even the Holy One of God. ²⁵ And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold your peace and come out of him!

²⁶ And the unclean spirit tore the man and cried out with a loud voice, and came out of him. ²⁷ And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned one another among themselves, saying, What thing is this? What new doctrine is this? For he commands the foul spirits with power, and they obey him. ²⁸ And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region bordering on Galilee.

²⁹ And directly, as soon as they had left the synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. ³⁰ And Simon’s mother-in-law lay sick of a fever. And right away they told him of her. ³¹ And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. And the fever left her immediately, and she ministered to them.

³² And in the evening, when the sun was down, people brought to him all their sick and those that were possessed with devils. ³³ And all the city gathered together at the door. ³⁴ And he healed many who were sick of different diseases. And he cast out many devils, and would not permit the devils to speak, because they knew him.

³⁵ And in the morning very early, Jesus arose and went out to a solitary place, and there prayed. ³⁶ And Simon and those who were with him followed after Jesus. ³⁷ And when they had found him, they said to him, All the people are searching for you. ³⁸ He said to them, Let us go into the next towns so that I can preach there also; for truly, I came out for that purpose.

³⁹ And he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and cast the devils out.

⁴⁰ And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, who kneeled down to him and said to him, If you will, you can make me clean. ⁴¹ And Jesus had compassion on him, and put forth his hand, touched him, and said to him, I will; be clean. ⁴² And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him and he was cleansed. ⁴³ And Jesus charged the man, and sent him away directly, ⁴⁴ and said to him, See that you say nothing to anyone, but go and show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing those things that Moses commanded, for a testimony to them.

⁴⁵ But the man (as soon as he had left) began to talk freely, and to tell everyone what had been done, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter into the towns, but was out in the country. And people came to him from every quarter.

Paul declares his love for the Romans, shows what the gospel is with the fruit of it, and reproves the base nature of the flesh.

1 Paul, the servant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle, put apart to preach the gospel of God – ² the gospel that he promised before by his prophets in the holy scriptures ³ that speak of his Son, who was begotten of the seed of David as to the flesh, ⁴ and was with power identified as the Son of God by the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies since the time that Jesus Christ our Lord rose up from death. ⁵ By him we have received grace and apostleship to bring all manner of heathen peoples to the obedience of faith, which is in his name. ⁶ Of such peoples you are a part also, who are Jesus Christ’s by calling.

⁷ To all you of Rome, beloved of God and saints by calling. Grace be with you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁸ First, truly I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is spoken of throughout all the world. ⁹ For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, ¹⁰ asking that at one time or another a successful journey (by the will of God) might enable me to go to you. ¹¹ For I long to see you, so that I may bestow among you some spiritual gift to strengthen you with; ¹² that is, so I may have consolation together with you through the common faith, which both you and I have.

¹³ I want you to know, brethren, that I have often hoped to go to you (but have been prevented so far) to have some fruit among you, as I have among other of the Gentiles. ¹⁴ For I am a debtor both to the Greeks and to those who are not Greek, to the learned and also to the unlearned. ¹⁵ So then, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you of Rome also. ¹⁶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, because it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe, namely to the Jew and also to the Gentile. ¹⁷ For by it the righteousness which comes from God is unveiled, from faith to faith. As it is written: The just shall live by faith.

¹⁸ For the wrath of God appears from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, ¹⁹ seeing that what may be known of God is manifest among them. For God did show it unto them. ²⁰ For his invisible things – that is to say, his eternal power and Godhead – are understood and seen from the works of the creation of the world. So they are without excuse, ²¹ inasmuch as when they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, neither were thankful, but increased full of vain imaginations, and their foolish hearts were blinded. ²² When they counted themselves wise, they became fools, ²³ and turned the glory of the immortal God into the similitude of the image of mortal man, and of birds, and four-footed animals, and serpents.

²⁴ For this God likewise gave them up to their heart’s lusts, unto uncleanness, to defile their own bodies between themselves – ²⁵ those who turned his truth to a lie, and venerated and served created things more than the Maker, who is blessed forever. Amen. ²⁶ For this cause God gave them up to shameful lusts. For even their women turned from the natural way to the unnatural. ²⁷ And likewise also the men left the natural way with a woman, and burned in their lusts for one another. And man with man wrought uncleanness, and received in themselves the reward of their error accordingly.

²⁸ And as it did not seem good to them to acknowledge God, so God delivered them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which were not right, ²⁹ being full of all unrighteous doing: of fornication, wickedness, covetousness, vice; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit; evil-natured, whisperers, ³⁰ backbiters, haters of God, doers of wrong, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to father and mother, ³¹ without understanding, covenant breakers, unloving, truce breakers, and merciless. ³² Which people, though they knew the righteousness of God, that those who do such things are worthy of death, yet not only do the same, but also have pleasure in those who do them.